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PREFACE.

If it be true, what has been so often said, that only a poet can be a good translator of poetry, the Author trembles for the success of his work, for, though he has been "guilty of rhyme," he now appears before the public for the first time in verse.

That not only poems which have been frequently translated are admitted into this collection, but also some which have been translated by Bulwer, Hemans, Longfellow, and other distinguished poets, is a presumption in excuse of which a few words may not be out of place. It was intended to present the English reader not merely with what was new, but with a complete outline of modern German poetry; hence, without regard to what had been already translated,

it was necessary to choose but the richest gems from the exhaustless mine, the most popular pieces of the most celebrated poets. Some of them indeed have been translated almost usque ad nauseam. What English translator of German poetry has not essayed his powers on Schiller's "Song of the Bell," and Goethe's "ErlKing?"

The selection commences with the first dawn of the second classical period, as it has been called by the Germans, and, indeed, the names of Hartmann von der Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Walther von der Vogelweide, and Gottfried von Strassburg, justify them, in some measure, in looking upon the first half of the thirteenth century as the first classical period of their literature. The poets are not divided into the schools in which they are usually classed by German historians of literature, but arranged simply according to priority of birth. As to the poets selected, it was a matter of some difficulty to choose from several hundreds without doing injustice to the fame of some. The reader, who is at all acquainted with the poetical literature of Germany, will find that many poets of reputation have been omitted. On examination, however, it will perhaps be found that their fame rests rather on

their prose works, literary influence, or other adventitious circumstances, than on the instrinsic merit of their poetry. Nor must the young English reader, as yet unacquainted with German literature, estimate the fame of many of the poets by the number of their poems here given. It was necessary to confine the selection to lyrical poems, and it is not on their lyrical poetry that the fame of a Lessing, a Wieland, a Herder, a Voss, a Schlegel, and a Simrock has been founded. With the living poets the difficulty of selection was increased, but the Author is more inclined to fear that he has admitted some who will not stand the severe test of time than that he has been guilty of any serious omission.

The original text has been placed on the opposite page that the book may be useful to students of both languages, though, it is feared, it will at the same time act as a mirror, and reflect with increased vividness the defects of the translations.

To the German reader, more particularly, who is but too apt to consider a poem well translated in proportion as it is literal, it must be remarked that the primary aim of a translator should be to infuse the spirit of his original into the idiom he uses, and depart

from the letter rather than betray the foreign origin of his poem. Keeping this first grand object always in view, great care has been taken to render the original as literal as possible, for that only is a perfect translation in which the letter, the form, and the spirit are equally preserved. How difficult this is can be known only to those who have endeavoured to accomplish the task.

In every case the metre of the original has been adhered to, even to the ancient hexameter and pentameter for which, according to Bulwer, "The English language has no musical analogy." The few odes of

* Preface to his translation of Schiller's Poems. We must confess that we do not agree with this opinion. In proof of his assertion he gives the following celebrated distich of Schiller, as translated by Coleridge.

In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column,
In the pentameter aye falling in melody back.

In our humble opinion he must have an unmusical ear who can discover no music in these lines, which, we think, prove that the English language is equally capable of this metre with the German. It is true, we have had no Schiller, or Goethe, to familiarise our ear with it, though, in later times, Longfellow has done much towards it. Not that we would advocate its frequent introduction into our language, or, indeed,

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